The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1887-02-12
Novels and NoyelIsts.

novels anu N0yeilStSs
III one were asked to name the classic
novelists of the English-speaking world
he would probably mention Defoe,
Swift. Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, DIR.
Johnson (Rasselas) and Goodwin
among the earlier ones, and Goodwin,
Maturin, Anne Radcliffe, Jane Porter,
Regne Maria Roche. Miss Edgeworth,
Miss Burney, Jane Austen, Charles
Brockden Brown (the American super
naturalist), Bulwer, Disraeh, Captain
Marryatt, Beckford, Hope, Cooper
Lever, Dickens. George Eliot and
Hawthorne. The above names would
not, could not, be omitted. OF course.
others might be included in the list
For instance, SCOTS son-in-law, Lock
hart, was a novelist of distinction in
his day, but no never was a favorite
novelist of the entire English-speaking
world as most of the above writer's
were and are. He was never uni
versal household novelist, as they were
and still are.
"Robinson Crusoe," ~Gulliver's Trav-
els" Mrs. Shelley's "Frankenstein. "
and Mrs. Radcliffe's mysteries of
Udolpho," and Johnson's "Rasselas
are housepold books, world books.
Meantime the army OF the English
writing novelists, living and dead. de-
fies enumeration, like the autumnal
leaves or the sands on the seashore.
And the cry il, in all critical, journal
istic, and review quarters that still they
come. Meantime, the above writer's OF
fiction remain the masters IN that de-
partment of literature. Their suprem-
acy is not disputed.
Tame calls Scott the Homer OF mod
ern citizen life. Bulwer and Disraeli
Il use the names by which they were
originally and long known as writers)
delineated, for the most part. the patri.
clan life of England, and this they did
with mastery pens, although they were
most versatile writer's, especially Bull.
wer was such, as the long list OF his
novels indicates. Dickens and Thack-
cray for time, with their gush and
satire OF rank and caste, threw them
into the shade, but they, or their
novels, have re-emerged and are almost
as much read as ever they were. Time
does not dispel the charm of "Con.
tarini Fleming" and "Coningsby," and
is not likely to.
So with a number of Bulwer's novels.
Such as paul Clifford, ""Rienzi," "The
Last Of the Barons, etc, they must be
read as long as SCOTS are. What q
splendid picture of the stirring age oi
the LAST of the Roman Tribunes" il
Bulwers novel of that name. Year,
ago some of our hypercritics were FOND
of declaiming from the lecture rostrun
against Bulwer and Disraeli and il
praise OF Thackeray and Dickens. Bu
the two former were as great in then
way as were the two latter.
As for Fieldings "Tom Jones, 10 re
vert, abruptly, to the earlier Englisi
novelists, It's pages are not readable Al
the present time. Fielding was agrea
delineator OF character and profoundly
versed in the English human nature o
his time, which was apt 10 loo coarse
brutal and sensual. In fact, his Squire
Westerns and "Tom Joneses" are toe
gross to be tolerated Mt this era. Th'
reader of atom Jones" now would neeC
TO battle himself thrice iii running wa
ter by way OF publication.
Fieldings "Parson Adams" is worth,
10 take its place alongside of "Doi
Quixote." Richardson's once famous
novels of pamela" and "Clarissa Har
lowe" would now be found too tedious
in the perusal for the most determined
novel reader. Smolletts "Rodericl
Random" gives us vivid delineaticns o
the rough old naval officers of TIN
Commodore Trunnion sort, who mad
British men-of-war in the first half o
the eighteenth century literally float
ing infernos by their brutalities.
"Don Quixote." "Gil Bias, Gull
yer's Travels, "The Tale of the Tub,
.Robinson Crusoe," "Tristram Shan
dy," "The Vicar of Wakefield" "Ras
selas," "Wilhelm Meister," and 9Th
Sorrows of Werther," "Nathek, Schil
ler's "Ghost Seer" "The Nouyello He
oise," "Consuelo," "Jane Eyre" Hope
~Anastasius, and Uncle Toms Cabin
are the unique books in the field OF fiC
ton, veritable world-books. -Bostol
Traveller